Marine Le Pen, no longer enemy of the euro

PARIS — For years, far-right leader Marine Le Pen blasted the euro as an enemy of the French people — an overvalued currency that she accused of impoverishing millions via price increases that were not offset by inflation.

Times have changed. Six weeks before the first round of a presidential election, the National Front leader no longer talks about the euro. On Monday, during a three-hour TV debate, Le Pen didn't make a single direct reference to the European currency, even when the debate turned to the question of how to strengthen buying power.

Instead of arguing that France should reissue the franc and use competitive devaluations, as she had in the past, Le Pen laid out more conventional proposals such as changing tax rules for overtime work. She did refer — briefly — to a referendum on EU membership in her closing statement, but not to ditching the euro.

The shift, which National Front officials say does not acknowledge a position change, is significant.

It underscores how France's foremost Euroskeptic party is adapting its language and positions in a bid to win power in the presidential election, even if that means jettisoning a core policy proposal.

It also reflects changes in public opinion with regard to the EU in France and across the bloc that may have caused Le Pen to reconsider her line on the euro.

"After the elections in the Netherlands and Austria, we see that Euroskepticism has more or less maxed out and is now stagnating or declining," said Julie Gaillot, an analyst at the Institut CSA polling agency. "In France, Brexit has made people worried about leaving ... We are observing an increase in attachment to the European Union."

Indeed, according to a CSA poll published to coincide with the Treaty of Rome's 60th anniversary, 66 percent of the French want to remain in the European Union. That's an increase of six percentage points compared to the end of June 2016, shortly after Britain voted to leave the EU.

It also matches trends in Austria and the Netherlands, where Euroskeptic candidates were defeated at the polls in elections last December and in March.

In both countries, populist candidates who had argued for a referendum on EU membership walked back on their proposals in the final weeks of campaigning. An idea that had seemed promising in the heady days following Brexit turned out, six months or a year later, to have aged badly amid confusion in Britain over how departure should be handled.

In France, opposition to the EU is now largely confined to National Front supporters, 78 percent of whom want to leave the bloc. "Anti-EU sentiment remains powerful among people with low educational qualifications, blue-collar workers and those who feel most fragile from an economic and social standpoint, who are less well-equipped to deal with the challenges of globalization," said Gaillot.

Such die-hard Euroskeptics make up Le Pen's electoral base, the same people she refers to as "the forgotten ones."

But in her quest for power, the party chief is being forced to look beyond die hards and win votes among groups that have long rejected the National Front: pensioners, company executives and the college-educated.

To expand her reach into such areas, where Euroskepticism exists but is less pronounced, Le Pen tried to tweak her EU exit proposal earlier this year. Instead of abandoning the euro, she suggested that France would keep the currency for businesses while reverting to the franc for everyday transactions. But critics seized on this halfway solution as evidence of waffling, and Le Pen did not repeat it.

"Europe is hampering us, Europe is controlling us," she said in her closing statement Monday night. "Independence means the right to act for yourselves."